"My name is Sif," Sif said cheerfully, lifting her head from the sweeping for a moment. "I'm training to be the temple's miko. Are you a friend of Belldandy's?"
"Who's training you?" Megumi asked.
"Big sister Belldandy is," said Sif, bowing. "Though big sister Urd is helping. Well mostly."
Megumi nodded. Made sense - Belldandy as a miko was way too easy to picture. Though this more looked like a half-sister. "I'm Keiichi's sister Megumi."
"Pleased to meet you," said Sif with another bow. "If you see any demons trespassing, please contact myself or Banpei immediately."
Megumi blinked. "Demons?"
"Yes. The one that got away was," and Sif immediately followed with a description of Mara.
"I think I've met her," said Megumi slowly. "She put the moves on me if I recall. I can see why you'd call her a demon."
"That and she's got a particular dark chi level," said Sif with a nod. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to complete my sutras."
Megumi nodded and watched the redhead get back to her purification ritual. Nice kid. Figured she'd be related to Bell.
Urd waited until long after nightfall. This was an unpleasant task, and one that she would not set aside to either Belldandy or Skuld.
"Oneesama?" Sif asked, coming partially awake.
"Hush, child," Urd said, making a gesture. Sif fell asleep instantly.
Urd took a moment to brush the girl's bangs out of her eyes before casting the spell.
On the astral plane she stepped quickly through the fog until she found what she wanted. "Ranma Saotome I presume."
"Go away," said the boy curled up on himself. "Everybody just go away."
"I'd love to," admitted Urd. "But you need to make some decisions on something important."
"Yeah, yeah, what's so important that you won't let me die?" Ranma asked. "I felt my neck snap when I hit the concrete."
"Yes, and Belldandy healed your body. Your mind she wasn't focussed on, that's usually something private and left alone," admitted Urd.
"Akane killed me damnit! Just leave me alone!"
Urd sighed and conjured a chair. "Look. I'm not going until we've talked."
"...so talk already..."
Urd looked at the boy huddled up on himself. "Gee you're taking this worse than usual. You've even regressed to age five there."
The little boy looked up. "Oh? Who the heck are you anyway?"
"Oh sorry," said Urd. "I'm Urd. I'm a goddess. As for why I'm here, it's to discuss a mutual acquaintance." She gestured and brought the image of the room outside into the dreamscape.
"That's my girl form?"
Urd nodded. "Yes. When you got thwacked, you went sleepy bye and some repressed aspects of your personality came forward."
"I'm a guy," automatically responded Ranma. "Repressed aspects, huh?"
"How do I explain this," asked Urd of the apparent heavens. "Okay, everyone's got yin and yang within them to some degree, right? A little male and female, a little good and evil, and so on."
"Actually I know a little about repressed personality aspects," said Ranma drily. "I did research on the Nekoken once trying to find a cure for that problem."
"Oh," said Urd, then shrugged. "Anyway, Sif there represents the kind-to-others, nice, gentle, thoughtful, sweet, self-sacrificing, cheerful, happy, innocent side of you. In other words, she's almost completely opposite of how you normally act."
"Gee thanks," grumbled Ranma.
"If left alone, you two will eventually become one being, and your aspects will come into balance. She was originally very-anti-violence. Now she's discovering more and more that she still loves the Art and is getting better at it."
"I'm a guy," Ranma protested again.
"You are, Sif is not," agreed Urd. "The problem is that Sif is developing friends. Real friends, unlike what you had. She's developing family and a life - and she's only been around three days."
Ranma blinked at this. "So why did you wait three days?"
"I didn't know you were there or details of your life until earlier today." Urd sighed. "This isn't fair to either of you, you know. Either you'll return and she'll be a fading memory or you'll continue to sulk over here until you fade away. The only other alternative is that you two will merge into one being. What that merger will look like, I have no idea."
Ranma looked at the images Urd put across the scene, showing the redhaired girl helping some slightly older Kasumi-esque woman in the kitchen. The redhead wearing a miko uniform and sweeping steps. The redhead going into some combination kata/dance that looked silly.
"I need you to tell me what you want to do, Ranma. This is your life as well as hers," Urd finally said, waiting for Ranma to look at her. "Would you rather:"
(Posted Fri, 07 Feb 2003 11:27)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.